Have you, like me, been in a presentation so boring that, though you hadn’t given up the will to live, you wish the presenter had.

Or been exasperated by emails which go on and on, screen after screen, but never come to the point

Or worse, have you feared that ’tis you who is the drab presenter or the tedious typer of text.

Don’t worry, because even if you are the winner of the Duff Communicator gold medal, you’re not to blame.

So whose fault is it and what can you do about it?

Well I’ll tell you on this edition of Riot Point Radio

So who’s to blame if you’re a poor communicator? Well, if you were raised in a loving family home, it’s your parents fault.

Why?

Remember that first letter you did at school?

It was all, “Today I did this, today I did that.”

And when you took it home Mum and Dad cooed and your grandparents laid garlands upon your shoulders, confident a Noble prize in literature was a certainty in your teenage years.

And thus they spoilt your ability to be a whizz communicator forever.

Until today.

You see, by responding as they did, your kind, loving family reinforced the wrong behaviour.

As a budding Jane Austen you got the message, “If I write about me I’ll get a positive response.”

Wrong. Completely wrong.

You see, Master Hemingway, in the real world, effective communication is not about you. Not directly at least. It’s about them, your audience. And it holds true whether your audience are customers, colleagues or family members.

The best communicators understand what makes people tick. They know we humans only want to know 3 things:

1. What’s in it for me?

2. Convince me you can give it to me.

3. Tell me what I need to do to get it.

That is the essence, the hard core of good communication.

Get it right and you’ll get hugs from your customers, smiles from you boss—and money in the bank.

But get it wrong and the consequences of bad communication are serious.

Customers won’t buy your services because they won’t know how you can improve their lives. Only 11% of the money spent on adverting leads to sales.

Employees won’t know what’s going on so do their own thing. In a study by Renaissance Worldwide, on 1 in 20 employees know their organisation’s strategy. That means 19 out of 20.

And there’s no such thing as ‘no communication.’ If you’re not communicating to your colleagues or employees they will fill the vacuum with their own story. And it’s likely to be closer to a Steven King horror novel than Harry met Sally.

The sole purpose of your communication is get action from your audience.

You’re not communicating to entertain. Leave that to Hollywood script writers.

You’re not communicating to inform. Leave that to journalists at the BBC.